Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) enables users to make telephone calls over a computer network, such as the Internet. VoIP is used to convert a voice signal from a telephone into a digital signal, which can be transmitted over the computer network. At a receiving end, VoIP is used to convert the digital signal back into a voice signal.
Problems can arise during transmission of telephone calls over a network. For example, excessive network traffic can create a bottleneck at a node on the network, thereby affecting the quality of the telephone call. Also, a node on the network can fail or function improperly, which can also have a deleterious effect on telephone calls transmitted through the network. These problems are not unique to telephone calls that are transmitted over a network using VoIP, but rather such problems can occur in any network over which telephone calls are routed.
The foregoing problems can occur in managed networks, in which a predefined bandwidth is guaranteed per telephone call, but are particularly acute in unmanaged networks, such as the Internet, where a predefined amount of bandwidth is not guaranteed per telephone call.